and some of its allies are threatening still more sanctions against russia as pro- russian forces are holding captive an eight-member team of european observers in slavyansk tonight. as holly williams reports, they show no sign of backing down. >> reporter: in slavyansk today, the town's new separatist mayor, vyacheslav ponomaryov, took questions about the european observers his men are holding. what exactly are the accusations against the inspectors? >> reporter: he told us all of them are suspected of carrying out intelligence gathering in separatist territory. in other words, they're accused of being spies. slavyansk has been under the control of pro-russian separatists for more than a week, but taking foreign prisoners is something new here and could be a sign that the militants are running out of patience. after the press conference, we asked if we could see the inspectors and were told no. are the men that you've detained, are they safe? are they being treated well? "yes," he said. "you don't need to worry." ukraine's government and the u.s. accuse russia of aiding this insurgen